Process for the production of wool felt capelines, and the product thereof



`Patented Jan. y31, 1939 FELT cAPEuNEs, 'rnEREoF AND THE PRODUCT Joseph Gordon Jones and John Rowland Jones, Surry Hills, near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, assgnors to' Jones Brothers Pty. Limited, Sydney, Australia, a, company of New South Wales Application February 8, 1937, Serial No. 124,754 In AustraliaOctober 12, 1936 2 claims.

A This invention relates to the production of Vfelted capelines or bodies from which vfelthats arevmade.

Y The production of capelines from Wool by the conventional methods is a relatively expensive and slow process. Although diierent manufac^ turers use various processes for the production 'of' a wool capeline, and Yno process can be deiinitely speciedas the conventional method, it

:is generally' `une fact that the wool is subjected to arelatively large number of operations before b The capeline produced at this stage is regarded the finished capelinefis produced, and the following yare operations generally employed:

Carding of the Wool, Y Forming o f the body, Hardening,

Bumping, Y Planking, and y Tipping and brimming.

asv theV nished capeline for the purposes of this specification, although it may be dyed and/or pounced before use.4 Furthermore, in wool felts it is kquitea common practice to re-bump and/or re-plank the capeline after dyeing. Machinery is now generally used in the indusf `try Afor each of the operations on the wool body,

'that the time taken to produce a capeline may be twenty-four hours. f

yThe object of the present invention is to provide a process which will produce a felted capeline from woolen yarn which has the appearance of a woolk felt capeline, but which isvery much simpler, quicker and less expensive to produce. Whilst no claim is made that the capeline produced by our process is inall respects the equal of a wool felt capeline, it has the obvious advantage of cheapness and speed of production.V The i number of operations necessary to produce the "flnished capeline is materially reduced, the time of` production is reduced from approximately 24 hours to approximately 4 hours, and nally the "number of machines, and the complexity and 4cost of the machinery necessary, is markedly reduced. V

`A further object of the invention is to' produce .Y aV capeline from woollen yarn by our process,

which is an excellent substitute for the wool felt -capeline, and which is produced at lower cost. f' The capeline produced by our process khas the `important merit that it is far more readily and quickly blocked than the conventional wool capeline, as it is formed ab initio with a flared brim.

With the above objects in view the invention consists of aprocess, and the product of that process, as hereinafter claimed.

In order to fully describe the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawing, in which:y

Fig. A1 is a perspective view showing a unit from the knitting machine, severed from the gang,

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the unit of Fig.V 1 stitched to form a hood,

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the hood after fulling, and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the capeline after fulling.

The drawing shows the capeline in the four main stages of its production. No detailed reference is made in this specification to the machinery by whichthe processes are carried out, since any skilled technician will have no diiiiculty in usingy standard machinery for this purpose.

In the first stage Woollen yarn is machine knitted, as on a machine suitable for knitting berets, into a gang of conjoined units each having a curved shapek and conjoined by short straight knitted portions `3.

One of the units, severed along the straight portions from the gang, is shown in Fig. 1. It will be seen that the yarn is knitted into a curved body I having a partially-circular crown portion 2 which, with the sides of the body, extend into the straight portions 3, 3 which originally conjoined the unit to the gang. The knitting machine is adjused, or adapted (in a manner which will be known to, or readily accomplished by, a skilled technician) to form the lower part of the body with a flared brim portion 4, the advantage of which will be hereinafter detailed.

The number of stitches used in knitting the body increases (substantially uniformly) from the crown portion 2 to the commencement of the brim portion 4, and in the brim portion the number of stitches increases at a greater rate, to permit the brim to take a flared relationship to the body. This method of knitting permits the subsequent formation of the body into a conical hood, with a brim flaring therefrom, without any unnatural stretching of the hood. Moreover, this shape is obtained with a uniform density of the material throughout the hood, resulting in a uniformiydense capeline after fulling.

The'body unit I is severed by hand cutting from the gang and has its open sides conjoined solution of sulphuric acid. It i's to be noted that in a linking machine which trims the ragged edges of the hand cut just before it links the open sides. In this machine the open sides are neatly and flatly conjoined, and the straight portions 3, 3 cut therefrom, to form the approximately conical hood 5 shown in Fig. 2. It will, however, be noted that the hood retains the flared brim 4, which is in fact retained throughout the manufacture of the capeline. At this stage the hood 5 is, of course, soft and limp, aS with any knitted article.

The hood 5 is then subjected to partial scouring in a bath of soap and soda as h, to remove a proportion of the grease in the yarn. The extent of this preliminary scouring is not particu-n larly material, and in fact it may possibly be omitted, as very complete scouring is leiected in the stage next following. However, the preliminary scouring is convenient in preventing excessive contamination of the iluid in the vrnext stage.

` The hood is then subjected to the fulling operationin a fulling machine, as used for beret manufacture. The fluid in the fullin'g machine is again soap and soda ash, which completes (or effects) the scouring during the fulling operation.` After the scouring is completed but before the fulling is finished, theV soap and ,soda ashr (with the now emulsified grease) is washed out and the fulling is continued using a dilute at no time duringthe fulling process, is it :necessary toY stop the ri'achine.m The hood is preferably subjected'to fulling for about two hours, and in the, process is` considerably reduced in size, Ywhilst the yarn is Very well felted orv compacted. Fig. 3 illustrates the hood after fulling, when itis termed a capeline (E), and it will be observed that the flared brim 4 is Vvery evident.

The felt'ed capeline i6, is then treated in a hardening machinejuntil the required felted 'texture is attained. This hardening treatment further compacts `the capeline.` Figure 4'shows the capeline 'l after hardening, whenv it is regarded as a nished capeline for the purposes of this specification, andf'is' ythe equivalent 'of the Wool feitjeapeii'neafter thetipping and brimming op` eration mentioned above;A

Obviously, further operations such as dyeing and pouncing may be carried out on the capeline, but as these are similar to the operations carried outV on the Wool attached threat.V ,4

It will be realized by any expert hat manufacturer that the flared brim portion l formed on the felted capeline 'I completely eliminates the necessity of tipping and brimming, and moreover facilitates the blocking of the capeline.

It Will also be very clear that the machinery necessary to manufacture the finished capeline according to the Vabove process is very considerably less, and is much simpler and less expensive, than the modern machinery necessary to manufacture a finished capeline from wool by usual methods. Not only is a great saving eifect-r ed in plant, but rthe time of production is only a fraction of that required for a wool felt, and hence labour costs are much reduced, and production accelerated.

The invention'does not depend upon the cornposition of the yarn used, and it is intended that the expressions wool and fwoollen yarn in the specification and claims shall include yarns made from fur, ywhich can be suitably knitted.

We claim:

1. A capeline comprising a body of knit material having a flared-knit brim and a conical portion, said body, in course of manufacture, having a longitudinal opening from Whose edges extend straight-knit portions, and means securing said edges together thereby closing said opening, said body being completely fulled.

2. The process of manufacturing capeline from Woollen yarns, comprising the knitting of the yarns into a body of generally conical form with a flared brim and with an opening extending from brim to peak leaving straight knit po-rtions extending from eachedge of the body along said opening, closing the opening and sewing the edgesI together, and thereafter scouring and fulline the body intea capeline.

JOSEPH.. GQRDQN JONES. JOHN ROW/'LANDV JONES.

felt, no importance isV 

